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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26719150">For Want of a Sword</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Distaff_Pope/pseuds/Distaff_Pope'>Distaff_Pope</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Catra is She-Ra, F/F</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:01:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,503</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26719150</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Distaff_Pope/pseuds/Distaff_Pope</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Catra finds a sword that fills her mind with ideas of a destiny greater than living in the Fright Zone. Now, she's leading the Rebellion against an evil Horde that's starting to look a bit less evil. Can she bring peace to Etheria before the Horde's newest force captain makes her own peace? And is this new destiny as glorious as it seemed?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow &amp; Catra (She-Ra), Catra &amp; Glimmer (She-Ra)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue: Outside Acceptable Parameters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>In the long wait after Mara’s betrayal, Light Hope had little to do besides replay the last few hours before Etheria became sealed off from the universe and calculating how she could have succeeded in her objectives, developing her understanding of what went wrong. What made Mara so unsuitable? When did these errors first start developing? (Light Hope had considered purging memories from before the Heart of Etheria update, when she’d been more tolerant of Mara’s failings, but decided that ultimately, they provided more information than they distracted her.) After a thousand years, Light Hope understood 98% of why Mara failed, well within her acceptable parameters and with little else to do, she waited like a leopard waits for dinner. So when someone on the planet activated a portal, within a 2.7 seconds she managed to uplink to other First One systems, scan the list for any and all active First One exclaves, found the last few pure First Ones at the edge of the universe, and redirected the portal to pull the child through. Simulations indicated the petty faction that found her would train her to be obedient and compliant.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At least, that’s what her calculations predicted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Instead, the same misplaced compassion for inferior lifeforms that ruined Mara took root in the child, named Adora, and with every year, Light Hope saw it digging deeper into her last hope to save the First Ones. By age 13, she calculated that if Adora became She-Ra, she only had a 40% chance of complying with her prime directive when the time came. She-Ra shouldn’t be able to stop the firing after firing activation, but the last She-Ra did far too many things she </span>
  <em>
    <span>shouldn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> be able to. But there were so few First Ones left, and the time between chances was measured in millenia. If Light Hope failed now, she would fail her mission completely.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She could do her best with Adora. Local information on First Ones was more folklore than truth, viewing them as almost benevolent deities, and Light Hope could exploit that. Feed her the narrative she needed to hear to bend Adora into compliance. But those calculations had been done when she created her 40% estimate, her programming dictated she abort any plan with such a low chance of success unless absolutely vital.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In another world, she might have declared it necessary, but instead, she decided to go beyond her protocols. In an emergency, she could do anything deemed necessary to complete her mission, and considering the imminent extinction of true First Ones and the unsuitability of the only First One on planet, the weapon needed to be fired and she needed a suitable She-ra to fire. Preferably one who’d keep the real She-ra close as a backup. And so, she did something no true First One ever would approve of: allowing their penultimate weapon to bond with a lesser being. But the First Ones would never know. They would simply wake up one day in the next few years and find they’d inherited the universe, and Light Hope would complete her objective.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The sword fought against her hack, knew what Light Hope wanted to do to it was wrong and it fought against her accordingly. But however powerful it was, Light Hope was smarter and more persistent. Soon, it yielded. Several safety protocols had been bent to breaking to accept her new rules, and the rest were merely bent. Still, the operator would be granted the same power Adora would have, and any negative health effects would take more than a decade to manifest based on her model, well after the weapon would be fired.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Compared to that, determining the sword's operator took less than an hour, with most of Light Hope’s processing power still focusing on the sword. While studying Adora, she found someone who checked almost every box in her She-Ra profile: Impulsive, reckless, emotional, tactically brilliant, riddled with insecurities, seeking approval from an authority figure, and Adora’s best friend. With everything in place, Light Hope reached out to draw the new She-Ra to her destiny.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Sword (Part One)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I woke up to sunlight filtered through green and pink, a light that beat the Fright Zone’s fluorescent glare by a mile. And why was the ground out here softer than my cot? I sat up, knowing I needed to get back to Adora before she left to go back to the Fright Zone. Because as much as she liked me, she couldn’t bear to let down Mommy Shadow Weaver. (Not that she was our mom, just some weird old lady who treated Adora like the future leader of the Horde and me like… a complication.) Ugh, why was the only good person in this place a suck-up? Like, if she wasn’t my-- I shook my head and rose to my feet at just the right height to see something gleam in the forest like only hard metals could. At least the skiff landed close by.</p><p> </p><p>“Adora?” I asked, pushing through a leaf into the little clearing where-- Of course it wasn’t the skiff. How could I have been such an idiot? We painted them dark green to avoid this exact scenario. But it wasn’t just any sword. The thing reeked of First Ones tech, the metallic tang that all their stuff carried burning my nostrils. Now this? I didn’t prefer swords when it came time for combat, because who needs that when you have claws that can tear through armor, but I could deal with it for some First Ones tech. I snatched at it with both hands.</p><p> </p><p>And immediately, the forest erupted into light. Reforming into new images that appeared and then vanished in a second. The sword, brilliant blue and gleaming gold switching to a big gray spire with a floating blue gem on top, then this giant blue lady wearing a cloak with the same linear etchings my sword had, and finally, home. The Fright Zone sat there, nestled between gray, stone fingers of, remainders of a shattered mountain. “Catra,” a woman’s voice, smooth and emotionless, said inside my head. “You are stronger than your superiors. You are bold. You are daring. You will achieve your heart’s desire. You will see Shadow Weaver defeated and on her knees, pleading for mercy. Adora will be with you forever. But <em> only </em> if you balance Etheria, Catra. Catra. Catra.”</p><p> </p><p>“Catra.” Her voice shifted to Adora’s, filled with panic and fear, and I found my eyes were closed, when they’d seemed wide open a second before. “Please wake up. We have to get back to the Fright Zone ASAP.” I blinked, her face coming into focus, so soft and beautiful, framed by her kind of dull-blonde hair with that stupid poof on the top that she thought made her look serious, and filled with worry. For me or herself, though? I closed my eyes and hooked my foot into a nearby root, causing her to fall backwards at the snag. “Catra, I saw you blink,” she said as I heard her getting back up to her feet. “This isn’t funny.”</p><p> </p><p>“Isn’t it, though?” I asked, standing up before she could and looking around. “Where’d the sword go?”</p><p>“What sword?” Adora asked as I looked back into the clearing. The empty clearing.</p><p> </p><p>“The one that was right there.” I pointed at where it should be. I looked back at Adora. It wasn’t on her. “I found it after I woke up. I mean, when I woke up before, and then I touched it, and then there was this lady talking about how amazing I am, which, it’s good to hear someone admit it, and then you were pulling me and--”<br/><br/>Adora hugged me, her cheek against mine. “It sounds like you hit your head pretty hard. Let’s go back to the Fright Zone so I can take care of you. It’s the least I can do after you saved me.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good to hear you admit I saved you from that robot this morning,” I said. “If you’d listened to my plan, we wouldn’t have lost any teammates.”</p><p> </p><p>“And if you showed up on time, I might have listened. But I’m talking about fifteen minutes ago, when you pushed me out of the way of that vine. If it weren’t for you, I would have been the one taking a fall.” The hug ended and Adora started walking back towards the skiff. I followed, feeling a little lighter thanks to all the praise I’d been receiving (even if Adora thought some of it was just in my head).</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, I guess that was pretty cool of me, too.” I blinked, trying to remember whatever she was talking about.</p><p> </p><p>“Of course, if you hadn’t been trying to take the controls of me, we would have never hit that vine.” She looked back at me, smirking.</p><p> </p><p>I took her bait. “Hey, I’m a great driver. It’s not my fault no one ever lets me,” I said. Every sim we did, I was just as good a pilot as her. But somehow, she got to be force captain, while I had to do more training. Life’s unfair, especially when somebody’s playing favorites. But I could show the Horde just how wrong they were about me, right? All I had to do was find the sword, find the spire, find the blue lady, and then? I’d get to balance the scales in my favor.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>I purred, swishing my tail, and letting Adora scritch my ears once she made sure I didn’t have a concussion. Not that I cared about the last thing. I knew I didn’t have a concussion, just like I knew the sword was real and out there and waiting for me to find. But who am I to turn up ear scritchies from Adora? I made sure to swish my tail in her face now and then, just so I could catch the look of annoyance on her face when I did it. Her nose looks so cute when she’s irritated, it’s hard not to provoke her. “I can’t believe you get to go to Thaymor while I have to stay here,” I said. “Without you, it might as well be called the Snore Zone.” Look, I couldn’t think of a good word that rhymed with ‘fright.’ Fight me. Adora gave me a look that said she’d had the same thought.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t be like that, Catra,” I bristled at the implied insult. I’d only put up with stuff like that from her. “This is my first mission, and I’m sure if you stop showing up to training late and falling asleep during classes, I’ll have you with me for my second.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, I am pretty great, aren’t I?” I said, rolling over on my back so I could look up at her directly, her neck and chin suddenly her most prominent features, while her mouth, nose, and eyes were just little bumps and dips in her silhouette. “And I think you’re right, it’s just a matter of time until the rest of the Horde sees it too.”</p><p> </p><p>I didn’t have to see her face to know Adora was smiling at that. I yawned. “But I’m getting pretty tired. Gotta get at least twelve hours or I’ll be useless in the morning. And, Adora?” She looked down at me, face shifting back to something like normal. “Any chance, since I saved you from that vine I can--?”</p><p> </p><p>“Of course.” She smiled, blushing. “I always love sleeping with my favorite footwarmer.” She moved to lay down on her pillow while I curled up at the foot of her bed. Under the covers, her feet pushed against my furr, and within a few minutes, we were both asleep.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Unlike most nights, I woke up before sunrise, the sword in the clearing a constant cleaving through all my dreams. I could stay here and be Adora’s sidekick forever, knowing that any advancement in the Horde that I received would be thanks to her, and not because Hordak and Shadow Weaver thought I earned it. I could stay here, and no matter how much I did, no one would see my worth. I could do that, but who on Etheria would? Less than a minute later, I was in the locker room, putting on my uniform, making sure my head guard fit snug, and inspecting myself to make sure everything looked good. It’s hard to do that with these cadet uniforms, but I made it work.</p><p> </p><p>“And where do you think you’re going?” A voice like nails on chalkboard asked. I turned to see the devil in red looking at me through her mask. “It’s past curfew.”</p><p> </p><p>Screw it. “I’m going to the Whispering Woods,” I said. “When we snuck out earlier today--” I checked the eyes of her mask, searching for the shock I knew I’d caused. “Me and Adora, obviously, I found this sword, First Ones tech, but when I woke up, it had vanished and Adora was dragging me back to the skiff.”</p><p> </p><p>“And now you’re dragging Adora back into danger?” The shadows around her spread out, grasping for me as the gem in her mask lit up. I leapt backwards, doing my best to stay away from the familiar feeling of decay and ruin.</p><p> </p><p>“Of course that’s your first thought. Adora’s safety. Because that’s all that matters. Because the only reason you keep me around is because I’m important to her.” She didn’t say anything, either too embarrassed to say how right I was.</p><p> </p><p>“To be clear, you’re sneaking out of the Fright Zone, an offense punishable by death, to sneak into the woods that have been responsible for hundreds of soldiers dying, to find a sword you saw in your dream? Do you even know where it is?”</p><p> </p><p>“I have a gut feeling,” I said, waiting for whatever dressing down she planned to give me for having initiative. (And planning to betray the Horde possibly, but she didn’t know that part.”</p><p> </p><p>“Very good, Catra,” she said. What? “I’m pleased to see this passion and vigor in you. And the fact that you’re minimizing resources used on this scheme? Very commendable indeed.” This had to be a trap, she was talking to me like she talked to Adora. Is this all it took to impress her? “Here, allow me to give you a requisition order for a skiff.” As she held out her hand, shadows danced around it until solidifying into a requisition form. “Understand that due to resource shortages, we can’t risk a skiff being lost in the woods. After twenty-four hours, a team will be dispatched to retrieve it.” Oh. Of course. She thought I would die or get lost or captured or something, so she could take a nuisance off the board. And if I did bring back the sword? She probably had some angle for that too. For the third time that day, I felt the urge to claw through her mask until she got about a head shorter. Hahaha. Jokes on me for thinking I might have won some tiny scrap of praise. Still. At least I was getting a skiff. I grabbed the paper and ran off, never wasting time by looking back.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Of course the skiff she ‘gave me’ was literally on the docket for scrapping. Five hundred feet away from the Fright Zone, a loud bang erupted from the engine, causing the skiff to lurch down a solid ten feet. No wonder the clerk triple-checked my form when I said I was taking a skiff out for an emergency patrol. I just thought he did because ‘emergency patrol’ is the fakest sounding thing ever. I tried to right the thing as its stabilizer shorted out and the main body of the ship tried to roll over. Lucky for me, I only had to keep the ship from inverting for thirty seconds. That’s that Catra luck in action. And even luckier, the ship only almost crashed another three times before I reached a landmark tree near where Adora’d landed her skiff earlier in the day. As I parked the skiff, it gave a groan that threatened to split the trees as the engine popped off. More evidence the Horde would never give me what I wanted. Besides, how hard would it be to convince Adora the Horde was awful?</p><p> </p><p>I didn’t have to think about where the sword was, I felt it pulling at me, and every step made it harder to resist. By the time I reached the clearing, I was sprinting on all fours and leaping on branches. And then, it was there. Glowing blue in the dark, like a beacon just for me. I didn’t even touch the ground as I leapt from a tree to my new sword. “Catra,” the voice said as the blue lady appeared. “I’ve waited so long to speak with the next She-ra, but I couldn’t until you forged a connection with your destiny. You must wield the Sword of Protection. Use its power to claim your destiny. Rid Etheria of those who would do it harm, and restore balance to the universe.” The image shifted to the mountain that cradled the Fright Zone but now, great billowing clouds of smoke poured out from the top, the Fright Zone glowing red like embers in a fire, and I felt the strength of the Alliance’s armies at my back. If I’d wanted it to be the Horde’s ultimate triumph, I knew the image would have shifted, but what did I owe the Horde? Only one person there cared about me. I looked to my right to see her standing there, smiling at me. I reached out and our hands intertwined. “And fight for the honor of--”</p><p> </p><p>“Horde spy!” A man’s voice pulled me back to reality, the sword still clutched in my hand and two figures stood at the edge of the clearing. The guy (who for some reason was wearing a shirt with a pink heart in the center of it and a cut off midriff) had his bow trained at me. The girl, on the other hand, was pink and glittery and very unarmed, which meant she was either a magic user or the pinnacle of stupidity. And if she was a magic user, that meant princess.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, you caught me, they sent me here to check on this clearing to make sure you all hadn’t snuck an army here when we weren’t looking.” I laughed. “Please, I’m out here to join you all. The fact that you’re already here just makes my life that much easier. So teach me how to be friendly and take me back to Bright Moon, alright?”</p><p> </p><p>“Sure,” the glimmery girl said. “Just kick your sword over here, and we’ll be happy to take you back to Bright Moon.”</p><p> </p><p>“No thanks,” I said, raising my sword over my shoulder. “Me and the sword kind of had a moment earlier, and it’s mine now. Also, let’s be real, it doesn’t match your aesthetic. Now, if it was pink and purple and about a half a foot shorter, I’d totally give it to you. Now, are you going to take me to Bright Moon because I asked nicely and promise to help you defeat the Horde or are you going to be idiots and do the other thing?”</p><p> </p><p>The guy almost said something else, but the girl cut in before he could. “We’ll never trust a Horde soldier. Charge!” And with that, she vanished in a cloud of sparkles. I turned around just in time to block her fist with my face. Idiots it was, then.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you can teleport,” I said. “How fun.” I ducked just enough to feel the arrow tickle my hair and swept my foot out at glimmer girl. She teleported right before I could connect, and if I hadn’t anticipated her doing just that, I might have put some effort into the kick. “That’s got to come in handy a lot. Do you use it to sneak out of the house at night and talk to your boyfriend? I gestured at the guy aiming another shot at me before jumping back out of the way. Smart enough to make sure his shots wouldn’t hit his friend, but was she smart enough to not teleport in front of him? Only one way to find out. I brought the sword down on her, but instead of vanishing into pixie dust, she held up her hands, now emitting a pink magic and bringing the sword to a deadstop just long enough for her to safely grab and teleport the both of them away.</p><p> </p><p>“That and a few other things,” she said, materializing next to bow-guy. “Now, surrender. I won’t ask again.” Damn, didn’t know she could do that. If I had to fight her again, ambush with a laser rifle at range. I reassessed the plan. Now that she had my sword, she’d want to take a swing at me, and that meant less teleporting.</p><p> </p><p>I laughed at her little threat. “Oh, I’m sure you won’t, miss-- What should I call you? Queen of Sparkles? Glimmer? Glim-glam? I think the last one’s my favorite.” And then I sprinted at her, knowing she’d teleport in and keep Bow(sure, why not? It was either that, Arrow, or Mid-Riff) from getting a clear shot. Right as she materialized in front of me, I vaulted over her, landing right next to him and swiping the string of his bow with one claw before he could react. “Hope those arrows still hurt when you throw them,” I said as I jumped up into a nearby tree. If he was smart with his contingency planning, he’d be able to restring it. If not, we’d all be brawling soon.</p><p> </p><p>The guy was on his knees, looking for the back-up string or just hoping it was there? I’d know soon enough. “Come on, Princess,” I said, leaping from tree to tree. “You really need to get on my level.” Now I could pounce on her, but she needed to climb or teleport to get at me. Seriously, between the lack of decent weapons and strategy that would have you at the bottom of the class rankings with <em> Kyle </em>, how come we hadn’t just rolled over these guys? Maybe they were the Alliance’s version of me, and they’d been sent out here by their Shadow Weaver. I hoped Shadow Weaver was one of a kind.</p><p> </p><p>“How could you do this to my bow?” The guy asked, sobbing at the heavens. “It never hurt anyone.”</p><p> </p><p>“Geeze, I think that says more about you than it does the bow,” I said, keeping my eyes on Glimmy.</p><p> </p><p>“Get down here,” she screamed as I jumped to another tree. She teleported to the tree I’d been on a second ago, and I took the chance to pounce, knocking her off balance and forcing her to teleport back to the ground. “Or are you too much a scaredy-cat to fight fair.” Cute thinking that would get a rise out of me.</p><p> </p><p>“Why would I do that, Princess? You’re trying to take me prisoner or kill me, and there’s zero benefit to me going down there and trading hits with you until one of us falls over. All I want is my sword back and to <em> join </em> you dummies.” I noticed the sheen of sweat on her face. “Now are you going to take me to Bright Moon or am I going to keep dancing circles around you until you get exhausted enough that I can end this farce of a fight?” I looked back at the guy. “Also, I have some string back on my skiff so you can keep shooting arrows at people like we’re living two-hundred-years ago?”</p><p> </p><p>“I think we should trust her,” he said. “If she wanted to, she’s had the opportunity to really hurt us by now, but instead, she keeps playing defense.” Technically, I would have hurt Glim-glam by now if she was less competent or more interesting than I expected, but who needed to know that right now?</p><p> </p><p>“Fine, I will acknowledge that the sword might belong to you,” she said. I rolled my eyes and groaned. “But until we made it to Bright Moon and you’ve had the chance to talk with my mom, Bow is going to be in charge of the sword. I trust him with my life and know he won’t antagonize you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Whatever helps you sleep,” I said, extending my claws and using them to slide down the tree. “And wait, is his name really Bow?” I asked. “Next, you’re going to be telling me your name is actually--”</p><p> </p><p>“It is,” she said. “Just Glimmer though. If you call me Glim-glam or Sparkles, whatever truce we have now is off.” I didn’t stop laughing until I’d started up the skiff.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Sword (Part Two)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>My guests hung their heads over the railing, wretching noises blowing in the wind to me. “Are you feeling better?” I shouted. I looked at the blade on Bow’s back. Doing surprisingly better than Glimmer considering she could teleport. You’d think that would give her some edge. The engine banged and the skiff jumped skyward, forcing everyone to grab on to something.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How have you all not just killed yourself on these death traps?” Glimmer asked once the skiff got back to something close to stable. She walked closer to me, clutching the guardrail with a death grip.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Because, they slated this heap for scrapping next week. Only reason I’m driving it is because Shadow Weaver wants me dead and the only person in the Horde who’d care doesn’t believe me when I try to tell her.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe if you’d stopped being so disrespectful, Catra.</span>
  </em>
  <span> I gripped the steering wheel hard, claws digging into my hands and drawing blood. “How can she not see how much everyone there hates me? We said we’d have each other’s back forever, but she just refuses to see how screwed up they all are.” They both stared at me, and I realized my eyes had watered up during my outbursts. Ugh, if I’d started crying during that, I’d look so weak in front of them. But then, this was the Princess Alliance. They’d probably eat that up. Still, didn’t mean I wanted to sink to that level. “Whatever. I’ve got to go poke around below deck and try to find the tracking device before Shadow Weaver decides I’m probably dead and that she can safely recover the skiff. Who wants to drive?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Horde are tracking us?!” Glimmer shouted. I checked all the displays, the ship was running as well as I’d ever seen it: Just enough to stay airborne and not fear for our safety.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not yet,” I said. Towards our destination, I could see the softening gray that meant Morningstar had started its ascent. When Lightbringer dawned, I might be a little worried about Shadow Weaver finishing her ugly sleep. “And if one of you will keep the ship flying straight, I’ll make sure they never have the chance to.” Bow came up and took the wheel. I showed him how to keep the skiff moving and keep things steady just in case she started getting shaky again. Before making my way to where the ship’s guts were, I let myself look over the railing at the forest below us.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s beautiful,” Glimmer said, suddenly next to me. Why act nice? I couldn’t be winning her over that easily.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I guess,” I said, shrugging. Below me, I could see the forest canopy and a stray village, barely more than a few overturned cups for houses, in all the millions of shades of blue and green that made up the colors of the night that Adora just said ‘looked black.’ Maybe her stupid vision kept her from seeing through Shadow Weaver’s lies, too. But cat eyes? They could see everything. “Honestly, there’s not much to see.” But I didn’t need to reveal that to my ‘allies’ just yet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know.” Glimmer sighed. “But with the dark and the horizon so far away, the world just looks so peaceful. I feel like I could forget we’re at war up here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Every sentence she said made it clearer why they were losing so hard. “Must be… relaxing,” I settled on. “All I’m seeing is where could make a good fort, where we need to create a visual perimeter, and where the terrain can be used to your advantage.” The town we just flew over wasn’t fortified, but it sat on a hill right near where two rivers joined. Take that place over, build a fort, and you could see any armies that got within five miles of you. And if I got my hands on it? I started imagining just where I’d put the artillery to maximize casualties and range. “Anyways, I’m gonna go rip a bug out so Shadow Weaver can’t follow us. I gave a wave as I headed below to the maze of steam and circuits in the bowels of the skiff. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Everything good?” I shouted up to Bow, checking for where they’d put the tracking device, sticking my hands deep into the circuits, feeling for some unfamiliar lump. For wanting me dead, Shadow Weaver spent way too much doing the one thing that could foil her plans. How many afternoons did she pull me away from Adora to inspect every inch of circuitry on these stupid things for ‘disappointing evaluations.’ The day I did worse than Kyle in anything was the day I broke Adora’s heart.  Assuming I could even break it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Flies like a dream, but one of those dreams where you’re naked and giving a speech and there’s someone chasing you with a knife,” he said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So just another day,” I said, latching on to the malignant lump nestled against the ship’s heart. And I’d survived enough of those not to break too much of a sweat. I ripped the tracking device out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uhmm, cat lady?” Bow shouted right as I felt the engine switch off and the ship go to battery. I took back my calling Shadow Weaver an idiot. The years of insults, the constantly poor evaluations. She couldn’t get rid of me because I was Adora’s friend, but if I got rid of myself, she could make sure it stuck. I plunged my hands into the wires, trying to reconnect the circuit. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I feel it too. I’m reconnecting the circuits now, but a normal skiff has an hour of battery, so knowing my luck, find us somewhere to set down in the next two minutes.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Batteries depleted in ten seconds,” the computer chimed. I growled at fortune, finding the circuits the tracker connected to and tying them together, fingers racing over each other as the clock chimed down. Five… four… three… two… “Engines back online.” They thrummed beneath my feet. For a second. “Two-hundred seventeen updates in queue. Please wait while we make installations and get ready to enjoy your time flying the Etherian skies.” I’d sprinted up to the main deck right as she finished speaking.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Find us anywhere we can land without getting torn to shreds,” I said, looking to Bow, reminding myself just how many skiff crashes pilots walked away from. I could count them on one set of claws.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Way ahead of you,” he said, pointing  to a valley ending in something that looked between a tower and a mountain. As close an emergency landing strip as you could find in nature. He steered the ship down, fighting the ship’s bucks and shifts as well as any skiff captain I’d ever seen. Definitely seeing how I could make him useful. I looked at Glimmer, aka, the one way I could make sure the number of victimless skiff crashes needed another hand.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can you teleport us out of here?” I asked, looking at her. “Let Bow get us as close to ground as we can and then sparkle us away.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Glimmer and Bow exchanged a look for a second. I couldn’t see her side of the conversation, but based on Bow’s look screaming “Absolutely not,” I could follow the gist. Another purpose for him. Capable pilot and Glimmer’s leash. With him around, I could almost trust her not to stab me in the back. As much as I trusted anyone who wasn’t named Adora to not hurt me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” Glimmer conceded, gesturing for me to stand next to her. I stood next to her and watched the ground rush closer as our pilot jammed the sails to slow our descent. With a bit of training, he could stand equal to Adora. If I had a hundred more soldiers like him and skiffs for them to pilot, and a supply chain to keep them repaired and fueled, I could harass every Horde supply line that went into these woods and bleed them dry over four or five years. And to do that, all I had to do was get their industrial capacity to near parity with ours and lead a militarization campaign that would get my name in the history books. Just another day. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I waited until the last second. “Get us out of here now,” I shouted. As her weird sparkle blast shot up from my arm to fill the rest of my body, I could feel the shock of the ballast running aground. And just like that, my feet were on solid ground. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Could you have waited any longer?” she asked as I watched the ship grind to a halt. Either deliberately or by accident, Bow’d sent the ship on its side to reduce hull breakage. I swished my tail in approval. Very useful. Our junker even managed to stay in one piece. Mostly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, but we wouldn’t have gained much from it,” I said, shrugging and hiding my pleasure. At least I didn’t start purring around her. “Now, come on, I want to check the extent of the sabotage.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I swiped claws through the console, sparks and glass burning into my fur as I read out the full list of the witch’s sabotage. I’d have been safer piloting an actual bomb.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Uhmm, are you ok?” Glimmer asked from the sidelines as I hurled the console into our mast. “Because I thought you wanted to repair this ship.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why?” I shouted. “Let her think I’m dead. Let her see this flaming, shattered wreck and drink the toast to my death that I know she’s been dreaming of since day one. And then, when she’s done smiling, I’ll be there to stick my sword through her heart.” I laughed. “Or is this the part where you tell me we can’t hurt her because we should love each other and she practically raised me? Because unless you know what it’s like to come up short every day of your life, of having her tell you how you’re never good enough, and that the only reason she hasn’t killed you in your sleep is because your best friend pities you, I don’t think you can say a thing!” I struck my hand into my bag and pulled out a lighter, setting the blaze near where I’d found the ‘tracking device.’ By the time the bomb went off, my skiff would be scorched steel and ash. I looked back at Bow and Glimmer’s wordless stares. “That’s what I thought. I think I saw us flying over a town right before we crashed. If we hurry, we can be there a bit after sun up, and do you think we can get to Bright Moon by nightfall?” They both nodded. “Then let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough of this nightmare.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*Adora*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We need to send a search party out to find her,” I screamed at Shadow Weaver for the fourteenth time since I woke up. Shadow Weaver just finished brewing her morning tea.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Adora, I’d love to send our best men to apprehend her, but with the siege of Thaymor so eminent, I’m afraid we can’t risk the diversion. Besides, she made the choice to leave. I suppose some people can’t handle their friends so completely surpassing them.” She rested a hand on my shoulder and offered me a sip of tea. “Sadly, most of life’s mediocrities are so wrapped up in their desire to be something, they can’t stand those of us who actually are.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s not like that,” I said. She wouldn’t do that to me. We were there for each other, no matter what. Always. “When we went out yesterday,” I braced myself for the glint of disappointment shining through her mask, “She hit her head and wouldn’t stop talking about seeing some sword in the woods for hours. I know she wanted to secure a weapon for the Horde to use, prove her worth so you’d put her on the mission. She’s never been jealous of me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course not,” Shadow Weaver said. I accepted her sip. “Silly me, I’ve never been able to understand your special relationship. So passionate and destructive looking from the outside. And I’m sure if she cares about you as much as you say. She wouldn’t want you to throw away your opportunity to make a name for yourself because she’s chasing a fairy tale. Once this is all over, you can swap stories in the cantina. You’ll even be able to take her with you into the Force Captain’s Lounge.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Really?” I asked. Of course she wouldn’t die, this was Catra we were talking about here, the girl who always clawed her way through a fight, no matter how tough. She’d probably come back with the sword we needed to take Bright Moon. As soon as she finished finding the best napping spots in the Whispering Woods. For the first time since I woke up this morning, the world felt halfway normal.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course,” Shadow Weaver said, a warmth radiating from my stomach. “Blame an old heart that’s been burned just a little too much, but I’m sure you two will go back to being your inseparable selves soon. After all, why would Catra ever leave you? You’re the only reason she didn’t wash out of the Horde years ago.” And just like that, the normalcy vanished.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*Catra*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I fidgeted with the stupid rose that Bow’d braided into my hair. Said I needed to be sure to do it before going into Thaymor. (Which I swear I’d heard before.) “So, are we good to head into town, or are they still going to kill me on sight?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why would they do that?” Bow asked, like it wasn’t obvious. I pointed at my ears and fangs and general cat-ness. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t exactly look like you all,” I said. “And I know how friendly the Alliance is to outsiders.” They looked at each other, and as soon as I said it, I realized I’d probably just repeated some stupid Horde propoganda. On the bright side, it made me look more like a sympathetic victim of abuse rather than a traitor who wanted to burn down the Horde because they were mean to her. Except Adora. No matter what, we were getting Adora out of there. She’d probably love being on team goody-goody, once I explained that the people who called themselves the Horde were obviously evil.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ve never been to Thaymor before, have you?” Glimmer asked, smirking. For not the first time that day, I found myself wanting to scratch that smug superiority right off her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What? No. Members of the Horde are welcome everywhere in Etheria.” I blew on my claws. “Don’t know if you know this, but I’m something of a world traveler. Been to the Fright Zone caldera, the Fright Zone perimeter, the fingers, and just yesterday, I took a trip to the Whispering Woods. Basically seen all of Etheria at this point.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“In that case, I don’t think we need to be going to Bright Moon,” Glimmer said. I checked her expression, made sure she was relaxing, not getting defensive. I didn’t need her cranky with me again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, well, I haven’t been everywhere yet,” I said, stepping as inconspicuously out from a bush as I could. The first thing I realized was just how right the insufferable duo was. I counted maybe a couple of people in town like them, none of them like me, but a lot of goat folks. Yeah, the Alliance </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely</span>
  </em>
  <span> didn’t accept outsiders. The second thing was no one was practicing any military discipline. Bright colors, talking loudly, gathering around to eat </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> off-regulation nutrient bars and fizzy drinks. I stood dumbfounded. “What the heck is this?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s a party,” Bow said. “You know, a party? Drinking, singing, games. Please tell me you have those in the Horde?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course, we have parties,” I said, grabbing a green fizzy drink and downing it, my throat tickling as I tried to track down an unfamiliar taste burning at my mouth in the nicest way. “I want to do the game where you hit the horde soldier with a stick.” I pointed at a circle of children taking turns hitting a paper soldier. If that was a game, I could get behind it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I stood in the circle, getting a few looks from the kids closer to me, the goat-lady handing out the stick. “Oh, do you want a turn?” she asked me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sure,” I said. Shooing the stick away from me, I clenched my fists, claws unsheathing. “So what do I do? Just take a swing at her or…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, we first blindfold you, spin you around a few times, and then you swing the stick around…” She reached out at me with the blindfold and I snatched it away before she could touch me, tying it myself, indulging her by spinning myself around a few times.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are we good?” I asked, waiting to regain my balance; it crept back slower than normal. My thoughts fizzed at the edges, unexpectedly buoyant.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, but you really should have a bat.” she said. I ignored her and pounced on the pint-sized soldier, finding and gripping the shoulder with one hand and decapitating my former ally with a neat claw stroke. Before I could take off the blindfold, children had surrounded me and were reaching down for something in the ground. I ripped the blindfold off to see candy pouring out of the body, now being ripped apart. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Clever. Teaching them to associate violence against the Horde with reward is good conditioning,” I said, plucking the head down and turning it into a puppet. “Grr, we’re the Horde. We don’t allow fun or candy. We just torture you if you ever do anything wrong, while showering your best friend with praise and rewards.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bow and Glimmer were on each side of me before I could keep going. “You’ll have to excuse our friend. The Horde took her sister a few years ago.” I looked from my puppet to all the children and the goat-lady staring at me. Talking about the internal functioning of the Horde might have been not tactically sound. Save that until Bright Moon.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come on Catra, I think it’s time we get going,” Bow said. I pushed them off, not accepting their guidance. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We can leave in a bit,” I said. “It’ll look odd if we leave so suddenly. I’m going to get more of that juice, then…” I looked around and saw an odd four-legged creature with a long face and hair coming down from its neck. Could I use it for war? “We should take that thing with us,” I said pointing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You mean the horse?” Glimmer said. “Do they not tell you what horses are in the Fright Zone?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They don’t tell us what a lot of things are,” I said. “So can we just move on? If you all ask me ‘Does the Fright Zone not have X?’ another time, I think I’m going to defect back. Now, let’s steal that horse.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Or we could just pay for it,” Bow said. I nodded. Fine, we could do things the goody two-shoes way. After all, I was with the good guys now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*Adora*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We have bad intel. Scouts are reporting Thaymor is a civilian town. It’s not the military target we expected,” I said. I couldn’t believe my first mission would be botched by bad intel. Especially since I could be rescuing Catra from whatever rebels found her and were keeping her captive.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Understood,” Shadow Weaver said. “There’s intel enemy agents are using the town to resupply and recover. While you should limit civilian casualties as best you can, we can’t allow the Rebellion to keep using Thaymor to resupply. That’s an order. Do you understand?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Shadow Weaver,” I said, the only answer I could give. “I’ll see it done.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Remember, Adora, you’re a force captain now. You have a greater responsibility to the Horde.” Her voice crackled over the radio. “We leave the siege in your hands.” The radio went dead, I turned to tanks and troops to fill them. I prepared to make my address. The sooner this siege ended, the sooner I could find Catra.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Soldiers, we are Horde. We are a family. Today, we are asked to do a grim duty, we will surround Thaymor and root out rebel forces hiding amongst the rebel forces. C Group and D Group, surround the town, apprehend or execute anyone trying to flee. Use your own discretion, I want to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible. Everyone there is a potential worker for our mines or farms, and by relocating them, we rob the Rebellion of a vital resupply station. Now, A and B Groups, follow my lead.” For a second, the troops looked at me with confusion, not understanding why we’d been ordered to attack a civilian target, but a second later, they got to work prepping their assault vehicles and checking on the bots. Satisfied they’d follow me, I hopped in my own tank and made my safety check.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*Catra*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Two thousand gold for a horse?” I screamed at the horse’s owner. We didn’t need the horse, I guess. Not if he was going to rob us for it. “First, gold is a dumb currency idea, it’s better for tech, second of all--”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you for the coin,” he said, nodding at Glimmer. The bag she handed him, didn’t look like two thousand coins. Why didn’t she haggle him down? I didn’t know exactly how much a horse sold for or how much one gold coin was worth, but it felt like I was being robbed. Right as I wanted to say something, a person screamed in the distance. I whipped my head in the direction of the sound, just in time to see a tank climbing the hill. Instead of opening fire on us, the hatch opened and--</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She stood there in her red and white uniform, ponytail whipping in the breeze, and her eyes focused and hard and on the opposite side of the battlefield as me for the first time in my life. “Citizens of Etheria, the Horde has come to rescue you from Rebellion manipulations, please do not--” She spotted me and hopped out of the tank, running to me. I couldn’t help myself, I ran, too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s you,” she said, throwing her arms around her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s me,” I said as the hug ended. “Adora, what are you doing? I thought you were taking on some big Rebellion fort.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She laughed. “Bad intel, but it led me to you. I’m sure Shadow Weaver will understand if I bring you back and don’t attack Thaymor.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now it was my turn to laugh, but with more bitterness than her. “Adora, Shadow Weaver tried to kill me. She gave me a skiff that was set for scrapping. I know you don’t want to hear it, but the Horde aren’t the good guys you thought they were.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Adora’s smile vanished. “Of course they’re the good guys, they gave us homes, food, a chance to make something of ourselves. Without the Horde, we would be nothing.” Huh, it was Adora’s voice, but Shadow Weaver’s words almost exactly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You never saw what she put me through. Please, we stick together, right?” I pleaded, wanting her to say yes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Always, but I can’t go with you,” she said. “I have a duty to the Horde.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I snarled. “You’ll always choose the people who put me through hell over me, won’t you? I could get on my knees and beg and say if I go back, I’ll be sent to Monster Island, but you’ll still side with them, every time, won’t you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We owe our lives to the Horde, Catra,” she lectured. “And they won’t send you to Monster Island. Not as long as I keep doing so well.” She smiled like that was so much better. As long as she kept winning, I could stay as her little pet kitty. I screamed out my frustration.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You know the real reason you won’t? Because if we join the Rebellion, you’re not the golden child anymore. You get treated just like me, and who knows, maybe sometimes I’ll even upstage you. Sometimes, I might be the center of attention, and you can’t allow that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Adora sighed, and for a second, it looked like I’d reached her.. “I’m sorry, Catra,” she said, “but you’re in one of your moods. You’ll calm down in a few days.” She swung her big, dumb, metal stick at me, because she didn’t put a taser on her belt when she went out to confront a potential enemy combatant. I dodged out of the way, stick just grazing my ear.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Bow,” I said, jumping backwards as the tanks started opening fire on the town, distracting Adora. Apparently she also hadn’t given airtight orders. Granted, seeing me in Thaymor probably didn’t cross her mind. “Want to give me my sword so I can save the town or would you rather we let Thaymor get sacked?” A shell exploded a house nearby him, forcing him to duck out of the way of rubble. He pulled out my sword and sprinted over to me, continuing to jump and weave around Adora’s swings, some only barely missing. I couldn’t do this forever. Once he got close enough, Bow tossed me the sword and I leapt into the sky to catch it, swinging it down and cutting the tip off her metal stick. “Ok, sword, what did you want me to say?” I looked at it as Adora investigated her own weapon.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Catra, how could you think we’re the bad guys? You’re so important to me, have I ever done anything to hurt you?” Her eyes flickered back to her stick. “Aside from today, that is.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Adora, you’re the most amazing person I know,” I said, waiting for the sword to give me another vision. Around me, Bow sent Horde-bots to bits with his arrows, and Glimmer teleported some more into the sky. They made the best noise when they crashed back down. “But you’re really bad at understanding the Horde are evil. You’ve seen how Shadow Weaver treats me, and you keep defending her.” Not once did she deny the accusations, did she? I had to be mistaken or deserve it. The sword glimmered and five words popped into my head in the same voice as the sword had earlier and a pulse of anger erupted from my gut. “I’ve always been on your side, but the truth is, you’ve never been on my side.” I aimed my sword at the sky. “For the honor of Grayskull.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then, I screamed as my whole body ripped apart.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As the pain subsided, I stood taller than I had before, and my hair easily fell two feet lower than before. Also, in the stillness that fell over the battlefield as everyone looked at me in awe, I looked at my own arms in awe, I was ripped. Almost made having to feel my entire body stretch and contort and break worth it. A sentence stuck in my head, begging me to say it, and sure, it made an impression.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am She-Ra, protector of this land,” I said in someone else’s voice. And then I took my sword and cut the cannon off a tank. “And the Horde shall defile it no more!” I swung my sword and a beam of light carried the tanks away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*Adora*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I managed to keep a retreat from turning into a full on route, although I could feel the eyes of every Horde soldier still with us on the back of my head, but I didn’t care about any of that. All I could think about was Catra. The Horde couldn’t be evil, I’d seen too much good in the recruits, in Lonnie, Kyle, and Reptilio, to believe Catra’s twisted narrative, but… we’d been about to invade an innocent town. We weren’t evil, but could look evil sometimes, and for someone as impressionable as Catra, without me there to help her, she could look at those facts and draw the wrong conclusion. All of Etheria could draw the wrong conclusion, and if we kept going like this, they were all going to be in arms against us.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh great Hordak,” I rehearsed my intro out loud as I walked. I needed an amazing speech not to be sent to Monster Island after my failure. I needed a perfect one if I wanted to convince him of… whatever it was I was thinking of</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We should break camp for tonight,” I said to my second-in-command. Most of us had to walk post battle, and our pace was a fraction of what it had been. “And how could she say I was never on her side?” The question erupted out from nowhere. “After all the times I stuck my neck out for her, she acts like I’m the villain? And I know Shadow Weaver could be harsh, she’s harsh with everyone, but I did my best to protect her from the bad parts of the Fright Zone.” Not making my case that the Horde was good. We really needed to freshen our image up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eldren, my second-in-command, just looked at me. “I know, I’m upset. None of this was supposed to happen. Yesterday, we were going to celebrate my first command together. Today, she almost ruined it.” Eldren raised his eyebrow. “I’m still returning with several tanks and almost all of our soldiers. Considering the opposition we faced, that’s good.” I looked into the darkening trail ahead of me. “That has to be good enough.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*Catra*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did you guys see that?” I asked, running back to Bow and Glimmer as the power of the sword left my body, leaving me feeling small and pathetic. I clutched tighter to the emotional high of crushing all those tanks and telling Adora how she’d never been there for me, even though… It felt right at the time! At the time, she’d never done anything for me ever. Now, a bunch of stupid memories proved me wrong.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That was so cool,” Bow said, putting up his bow. “I can’t believe that </span>
  <em>
    <span>you’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> She-ra.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, who is that?” I asked. Guessing by the way the two of them were looking at me, it was… of course she was going to be some ancient hero of legend. Which meant </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> was an ancient hero of legend. Was Adora an ancient hero of legend? No. So maybe, she’d finally acknowledge me as her equal and not her pet kitty.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She-ra was the first princess,” Bow said. “At least the first one we find mentioned in First Ones writing…” There was a big history lesson I didn’t really pay attention to. I got the gist of it. She-ra = Big, Powerful Princess = Me. I liked that math.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can I try?” Glimmer asked</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Will you return it?” I asked, too tired at that moment to care if she didn’t.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Glimmer said like a child promising to wash her hands. I passed her the sword. A second later it was raised over her head. “For the honor of Grayskull.” Nothing happened. I smirked and took the sword back.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Looks like you’re not cut out to be the ultimate princess,” I said, looking around the town. All-in-all, the damage hadn’t been too bad. Would’ve been worse if we hadn’t been there. Or if Adora had started off with an attack. In a few days, all the cosmetic damage would be erased. I returned my attention to Glimmer. “But don’t feel too bad, the transformation is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Maybe you weren’t meant to be She-ra, either,” Glimmer said. I shoved her just light enough it didn’t count as assault.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Next time, I do that as She-ra,” I said, trying to smile and play it off as a joke. She couldn’t separate me from my destiny. No one would, not even Adora.</span>
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